Abstract
This paper reports on the development and implementation of parallel processing software for finite element solutions. A parallel FEM equation solver has been developed and tested for several static and dynamic stress analysis demonstration problems. It has also been incorporated into the FENRIS finite element system and applied to crash dynamics test problems. Parallel processing methods for transient analysis have been studied using implicit and explicit numerical integration schemes. Parallel software has been implemented on several multiprocessor machines including shared memory and local memory computer architectures. It is shown that a parallel processing approach can significantly reduce execution time for large-scale finite element problems.